Some feminists, Emma Thompson amongst them, sign letter decrying trans-exclusionary responses to the GRA

[EweSurname]

www.thenational.scot/news/17472564.they-do-not-speak-for-us-feminists-hit-back-at-trans-exclusionary-activists-in-open-letter/

We, the undersigned, are a large and diverse group of women who are committed to ensuring that trans people feel welcome and safe within our society.

Recently there has been a rise in ill-informed articles and commentary, where writers have continually insinuated that trans women are not women. These same pieces misrepresent current legal statutes, equalities policies, and public attitudes in Scotland.

Since 2004 the Gender Recognition Act has realised, in law, the rights of trans women as women and trans men as men. Since 1999, the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations and then the Equality Act (2010) have recognised, in law, the right of the trans community not to be discriminated against on the basis of their gender reassignment. The right of trans people to access gender specific services is an already settled legal matter.

Many national and regional news outlets routinely fail in their pages to recognise this legal reality. Instead, it is our perspective that some writers rely on recycling outdated arguments in an uncomfortable attempt to shoehorn trans identities into much needed conversations about gender-based discrimination and violence.

We believe that national conversations about gender-based discrimination and violence are necessary, however these conversations should not in any way attempt to roll back the rights that trans people already have in Scotland, nor spread misinformation.

In the Scottish Government's recent public consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act (2004) a majority of respondents supported gender self declaration, as well as recognising non-binary people. As a collective of women, we urge that trans-exclusionary writers do not suggest that their narrow and archaic arguments are in any way representative of the women of Scotland. They do not speak for us.

This is not an issue of Freedom of Speech. Both sides have a plethora of platforms to outline their position. However, it is imperative that these platforms should not be used to spread misinformation or misrepresent the law or the facts in this area.

When this conversation is reduce

d to allegations of "shutting down debate" whenever misrepresentation or misinformation is challenged, the result is to purposefully discount the position of many women - like us - who support the trans community. We will be heard.

Trans people have played an integral role in every civil rights movement to date; from LGBT equality to women's causes. Attempts to airbrush trans people from conversations regarding equality and human rights, or to exclude them from advancements for LGBT and women's rights, have happened before. Such efforts may have re-energised, but they are nothing new, and we say as a collective of women: they are not representative of us. We support trans rights.

Outlets and commentators have an ethical responsibility to consider the impact of their reportage, analysis and commentary particularly on the mental health of trans young people. Recently, data from Stonewall Scotland revealed that over half of trans people considered ending their lives last year. Trans people continue to face unlawful discrimination and violence. Routine misinformation and sensationalism is contributing to a cultural climate where this is legitimised. This has to stop.

Journalists, commentators, and publishers have a central role to play in ensuring Scotland is a welcoming and inclusive place for trans people.

The conversation has to change.

Rhiannon Spear, Chair of Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) and Glasgow City Councillor for Greater Pollok

Tiffany Kane, Vice Chair of Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) and Operations Manager at Common Weal

Dame Emma Thompson, Double Academy Award Winner

Laura Waddell, Publisher and Writer

Dr Jennifer Jones, Independent

Rosa Zambonini, Communications Manager to Member of the Scottish Parliament

Cllr Jennifer Layden, SNP Councillor for Calton

Dr Claire Askew, University of Edinburgh

Laura Wylie, Sexual Violence Prevention Worker at the Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (Dundee and Angus),

Sinead Daly, CEO of the Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (Dundee and Angus)

Christina Neuwirth, Writer

Kate Adair, SQIFF

Eve Livingston, Freelance Journalist

Kelly Given, Equalities & Mental Health Advocate

Jennifer Constable, Journalist

Rachel Hamada, Journalist

Leona Jack, Gender Based Violence Practitioner

Angela Haggerty, Journalist

Lynne Davies, Foster Carer

Amanda Stanley, Freelance Podcast Producer

Kaite Welsh, Author & Journalist

Hannah Bardell, MP for Livingston

Miriam Brett, International Finance Project Manager

Sarah Masson, or Co-Artistic Director of Shift, Shift Theatre

Fi and Charlotte Duffy-Scott, Co-Owners, Category Is Books, Glasgow

Claire Biddles, Freelance Writer

Erin Hardee, Schools Outreach Organiser

School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee

Dr Pat Cullum BA (Hons) DPhil FRHistS, FHEA, School Co-Ordinator for Student Experience, School of Music, Humanities and Media, University of Huddersfield

Gail Ross MSP, SNP Member of Scottish Parliament for Caithness

Dr Eleanor Janega, Guest Teacher at the LSE

Cllr Kim Long, Green Councillor for Dennistoun

Cllr Eva Murray, Labour Councillor for Garscadden/ Scotstounhill

Cllr Christina Cannon, SNP Councillor for Springburn/Robroyston

Cllr Martha Wardrop, Green Councillor for Hillhead

Bailie Christy Mearns, Green Councillor for Anderston/ City & Yorkhill

Cara Spence, Head of Programmes, LGBT Youth Scotland

Amy Irons, Broadcaster

Hannah Pearson, Queer Feminist Campaigner

Rebecca Crowther, PHD Social Science Researcher

Susan Ross, Police Scotland

Jane Friffin, Head of Partnerships, LGBT Youth Scotland

Michelle Sodo, Head of Operations, LGBT Youth Scotland

Nicola Booth, Head of Youth Work, LGBT Youth Scotland

Bridget Bradley, Teaching Fellow, The University of Edinburgh School of Medical Anthropology

Naomi McAuliffe, Scotland Programme Director, Amnesty International

Gayle Telfer Stevens, Olivier Award Winning Actor

Jen Ang, Lawyer and Director, Just Right Scotland

Lisa Clark, Senior Communications Officer, Children in Scotland

Mhairi McMillan, Solicitor, Logans Solicitors, Cumnock

Margaret Logan, Women’s Aid, Support Worker

Dr Brandi Lee Lough Dennell, Research Associate

Rona Mackay, SNP MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden

Hazel Marzetti, PHD Student, University of Glasgow

Pam Currie, EIS FELA President (Personal Capacity)

Fiona Robertson, SNP's National Women's and Equalities Convenor

Katherine O’Donnell, Journalist

Christine Burns MBE, Equality Campaigner and Author

Lucy Spraggan, Musician

Leeze Lawrence, Producer, Editor, Filmmaker & Trans Advocate

Helen Nugent, Journalist and Editor of Northern Soul

Janet Coulson, Actor and Creative Director of Firebrand Theatre

Paris Lees, Writer and Broadcaster

Marlene Zwickler, Agent and Producer

Elena Soper, Feminist and Activist

Mhairi Black MP, Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Dr Lindsay Clark, Post-Doctoral researcher

Jackie Brock, Chief Executive, Children in Scotland

Joanna Murphy, Chair, National Parent Forum for Scotland

Louise Oliver, Actor and producer

Lady Mary Hope, Lady Hope of Craighead

Audrey Barnes, Campaigns & Programmes Coordinator at YWCA Scotland

Jemma Tracey, Senior Participation Officer, Children in Scotland

Laura McGlynn, University of Glasgow

Bailey McCormack, Event Coordinator and Freelance Performer

Emma Rogan, Senior Policy Officer at Children in Scotland

Róisín McKelvey, Feminist PhD Researcher

Janine Ewen, Queer Feminist, Violence Against Women Campaigner

Paging Emma Thompson.

Please read this thread.

Bridget Bradley, Teaching Fellow, The University of Edinburgh School of Medical Anthropology

Somebody from a medical anthropology department who thinks humans can change sex.

Questions for them:

1. if you dig up a skeleton in a reasonable state of preservation, over the age of about 16, would you be able to tell what SEX it was?

1. Do you believe humans can change sex?

I despair.

Like mammoon, I'm quite heartened by the fact that Emma Thompson has signed up to this. I dismissed ET as an irritating "me, me, me" luvvie some years ago but the fact that her name is attached to this means it will get wider media coverage and might help push it to the forefront of so many other people's minds, where it will promptly backfire. After all, it's not only women who are concerned about the march of the TRA agenda but many men too.

In fairness, I was pleasantly surprised that she walked out on the animated film but then I remembered that even a stopped clock is right sometimes.

This letter was originally written to support taking sex off the census?

OK these people are idiots.

What possible argument is there for removing sex completely rather than collecting sex and also gender id.

The sad thing is these undoubtedly well meaning and socially concerned people never think through the consequences.

This isn't about (for instance) Jean (made up name) the perfectly nice transwoman who transitioned 20 years ago, is well integrated into society, and wants to continue to work as a nurse, which I fully support. This is about whether Jean gets to carry out smear tests on women who are uncomfortable with Jean's presence. If your knee-jerk reaction is "these women are bigots who need re-education", then you haven't really thought hard about it.

Why don't you think women get to assert boundaries about their own bodies? What if the transwoman in question wears a full beard (as some do). What if they identify as gender fluid and only identify as a woman part of the time? Is a woman still a bigot for objecting in those circumstances.

You don't get to cherry-pick the easy media friendly cases, either. You have to deal head on with the Karen Whites of this world. If you really believe TWAW, you are advocating for Karen White to be in a women's prison. Own it. And tell people honestly that you own it. Say "I believe that this is a woman who raped other women with her penis and as such should be in a women's prison."

You have to go the full Indy sportswriter too - if we end up in a situation where transwomen end up winning all the medals and holding all the world records in women's sports, you should be publicly prepared to say "and I am totally OK with that - clearly they are just the most athletically talented subgroup among women."

You have to be prepared to stand up and say "if the Scottish Parliament ended up with 50% men, and 50% transwomen, this would count as a gender-balanced parliament and be a good thing, and women's voices and votes would be represented by this situation."

If, as a trans ally, you baulk at saying any of these things, then you are as t**fy as the rest of us, and a raging hypocrite to boot.

Well said Fermats. They need to be made to own their shit

Fermats totally agree

Quotation from the statement in the OP: "Trans people have played an integral role in every civil rights movement to date; from LGBT equality to women's causes.".

Are they are trying to retrospectively trans the suffragettes?

FermatsTheorem brilliantly put. This is what we need to say every time we get told we're unduly focused on the bad examples.

As far as I can see, responses to the difficult cases come in a number of flavours:

This will never happen. To which I respond "well, for something that never happens, it seems to have happened rather a lot already."

This is vanishingly rare, so you're catastrophising. To which I respond "vanishingly rare is not a good enough answer to the women directly on the receiving end, like the women in prison who were sexually assaulted by White."

This will happen occasionally, but sucking it up is for the greater good in a fair society. To which I answer "Why is it always women who have to move over to create this fair society?"

This does happen, but them's the breaks. TWAW. This to my mind has the merit of honesty, but again, what about women? Why do 3.5 billion of us come second yet again?

It’s interesting who hasn’t signed that letter

FermatsTheorem that's a great summing up. It should be tweeted somewhere by someone and sent to every one of those signatories.
Own it.

Yes, I can think of at least one obvious omission, Danny.

However, since the organisers have said that since its publication they've been contacted by lots of others saying "please add my name" I don't think we can draw any conclusions. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence..."

Brilliant post Fermats. Really clear. I would have more respect for someone that said "TWAW and this is the consequences of that and I stand by them" than all the wriggly weasel wording that goes on as they try to whitewash over that shit. I would disagree with them in the strongest possible terms but at least they would be consistent and anyone watching could see it all for what it is.

vesuvia it's easy

gender id is expressed through conforming / or not to the stereotypes of your sex

women are stereotypically supposed to be docile, compliant, not creating anything of note, interesting in being sexy, selflessly raising children, etc

any woman in history who has done something other than this > spoken up, fought, defied sex stereotypes, taken on attributes or roles labelled masculine, is therefore not a woman. They were non binary or probably "really" a man

therefore logically no woman has achieved anything of public note in the history of the human race. because any woman who did, was by definition, not female

happily this supports the already scrubbed historical records that have painstakingly removed or reduced or ignored the conttibutions of women through history for anythign but being beautiful, being married to someone famous, giving birth to someone of note, or being a a prostitute

Time will tell (fingers crossed)

Well said Fermat

Well put Fermats, this is simply a group of women who put the rights of biological males before the the rights of biological females.
They don’t see this having any impact on their day to day lives - a cowardly view that says ‘let them eat cake ‘. We need to see more women united against this MRA movement , not being divisive.

If, as a trans ally, you baulk at saying any of these things, then you are as tfy as the rest of us, and a raging hypocrite to boot.

Exactly. I really don't think they know what they are endorsing.

Any woman who thinks Karen White should be in a female prison would lose the support of everyone she knew.

So let's hear it then Emma and co. What is it you expressly accept in terms of the consequences?

And bring some aspirin, because I guarantee the mental gymnastics required to see this through will give you the mother of all headaches.

CharlieParley
That letter btw was circulated to all female MSPs before the Stage 1 Census Bill debate in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday

Now that is fascinating thank you

Fermats couldn’t agree more

Bring it all into the sunlight

Emma Thompson is not and never has been a feminist. She's an EmmaThompsonist. It's all about look-at-me! Aren't-I-just-fabulous!

None of the people listed are feminists. They are selfish thoughtless virtue signallers, playing with other people's rights.

The open letter linked in the OP has 78 signatories. All except one of these signatories are individual women or transwomen. The exception appears to be "School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee".

Is this a printing error in which the name of a person has been accidentally omitted but their affiliation is printed? Or does the entire biology section of a publicly-funded British university actually not accept biological reality?

Isn’t it that the schools outreach coordinator works at the life sciences part of the uni, ie the description belongs to the name above?

twitter.com/mridul_wadhwa?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

This xy person seems to be a major influence on women’s rights.

From the 2015 review of the GRA and trans rights:

Genuine occupational requirement
125.A further provision in the Act allows employers to stipulate that a post is only open to individuals with a particular protected characteristic, where this constitutes a “genuine occupational requirement”.131

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmwomeq/390/39007.htm#footnote-268

130.Mridul Wadhwa told us that the provision was:

discriminatory to transsexual people especially trans women. I genuinely believe that there is no space for it in the gender-based violence sector and that it has no place in violence against women work. I was unaware of its existence until a few weeks ago. I have worked in the violence against women sector since 2005 and have never known for it to be used. I am disappointed to think that someone has the right to refuse work to me and others like me in my sector just because they think that I might not be a woman.136

data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/women-and-equalities-committee/transgender-equality/written/19653.pdf

Introduction I am a transsexual woman from India. I live and work in Edinburgh, Scotland. I work for Rape Crisis Scotland as a Training and Volunteer Co-ordinator and as the Information and Education Officer for Shakti Women’s Aid. These are the two leading Scottish charities that support and campaign for survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse in Scotland. Shakti works primarily work with BME and Migrant women experiencing domestic abuse. I am also an associate of the College of Policing, England and Wales where I present on transgender and migrant women’s issues on the Equality and Human Rights course and am a domestic abuse trainer on the college of policing’s Domestic Abuse matters training program. I also co-wrote and co-facilitated the Scottish Government’s training on forced marriage. I have been involved in the violence against women sector in Scotland since 2005. I moved to Scotland from India in 2004. I transitioned in India in 2001.

en-gb.facebook.com/theSNP/videos/mridul-wadhwa-on-giving-a-voice-to-the-most-marginalised-women/10156517118179078/

The right of trans people to access gender specific services is an already settled legal matter

Not true unless they have a GRC - this is a lie that Stonewall are peddling in their training. I don’t know how they get away with it